A League of New Media
Introduction New media has revolutionized how we now read and interact with text. No longer is text merely defined as words written on a page. That definition is now extended to movies, TV shows, online web pages, and video games. Out of all the forms of new media, I believe video games to be the most immersive. Based on Bolter and Grusin’s logic of remediation, video games fall under the logic of transparent immediacy. Bolter and Grusin state, “we see ourselves as a point of view immersed in an apparently seamless visual environment. In a virtual environment, we have the freedom to alter our selves by altering our point of view and to empathize with others by occupying their point of view”''' Bolter, David and Grusin, Richard. "Remediation: Understanding New Media". Course Readings, ENGL 295. 232 . '''A video game provides that virtual environment where we can engage ourselves so deeply in interacting with media, that we almost forget we are doing it. One of the se games is [http://na.leagueoflegends.com/ League of Legends] . League is known as a MOBA (Massively Online Battle Arena) type game. Currently it has over 32 million players, and is one of the most played online games of the North American region. The basis of the game is that the matchmaking system will divide 10 players up into two teams of 5. Prior to the match starting, each team must interact with each other in order to decide who will play which champion (character). Then each team must work together to destroy the opposing teams base. This engages the players immensely because the team that has the most efficient teamwork will almost certainly win. Inventions such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 Web 2.0] have greatly help League of Legends prosper because of the high level of interactivity League brings to the table. Through the use of the official League of Legends Forum and multiple stat tracking websites, players, also known as summoners, can involve themselves in the game even outside the virtual reality environment. This way, players can experience both immediacy and hypermediacy simulatenously. Knowledge Communites Summoners of all skill levels, backgrounds, and play styles can come together to participate in the online knowledge community known as the [http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/index.php League of Legends Forum] . A knowledge community can be described as a group of people collaborating and using their collective intelligence to strengthen the overall knowledge of the group as a whole Jenkins, Henry. "Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture". Course Readings, ENGL 295. 27. . In ''Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture, ''collective intelligence is defined as the "ability of virtual communities to leverage the combined expertise of their members."Jenkins, Henry. "Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture". Course Readings, ENGL 295. 27. The League of Legends forum does this and more. With so many sub-sections of the forum such as: New Player Forum, General Discussion, Guides & Strategy, Fan Art, and Champion Feedback, players can discuss virtually anything related to the game. Anyone with a League of Legends account is allowed to view/post on the forum, regardless of skill level and time spent playing. The most popular sections of the forum are General Discussion and Guides & Strategy. Since everyone has their own strategy to playing the game, one of the best ways to improve is to read about other people strategies. This allows players to know how their opponents play, which gives them an opportunity to come up with a counter-strategy. Players can also combine multiple strategies to find out which one works the best for them. Types of posts include: full length guides on how to play a certain character, video tutorials showing how to do advanced skills, and in-game commentary on top of full recorded matches. Because of the forum, people are able to get constructive criticism about the way they implement a certain technique or character. Through sharing strategies and other game-play information, players are able to pool together their knowledge and become stronger. This leads to a commonly shared goal of becoming a highly ranked summoner. The ultimate goal of any summoner is to be the best in their division. Once someone is ranked fairly high, he/she is often rewarded with prizes and also given the chance to compete in intense high-valued tournaments. This “ranking” also creates experts in the online community. As described in ''Spoiling Survivor'', experts are “credentialized”, which means they have gone through and mastered a certain field of knowledge Jenkins, Henry. "Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture". Course Readings, ENGL 295. 54. . The experts of the League of Legends Forum and community have all been playing for quite some time to achieve their high rank. Usually, they are also able to dictate things that occur in-game and on the forum. For example, if a highly ranked summoner creates a thread on the forum, it is given much more attention than any other thread. Also, since each match in League of Legends in a team match, players will usually listen to and follow whoever is ranked the highest on their team. These experts, especially the professional players, have even created a “meta” for the game http://www.newsoflegends.com/index.php/the-meta-model-5882/ . “Meta” is a term thrown around League of Legends which basically describes the optimal team composition of champion types in order to win a game. Since most of the professional and exp ert players use the meta of: brusier in the top lane, mage in the middle lane, carry and support in the bottom lane, and a jungler, almost everyone else follows this as well. There is basically a mentality that in order to get to the expert level, one must use the same strategy the experts use. Interpretive Disputes With so many options of characters, item builds, team compositions, and strategies to choose from, there are often times interpretive disputes among players over what will work the best. As stated by Jenkins in ''Spoiling Survivor'', "Some things become common beliefs that everyone accepts, and on other matters, the group, gladly and gleefully, agrees to disagree" Jenkins, Henry. "Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture." Course Readings, ENGL 295. 45. One example of this was when the "meta" (mentioned in knowledge communities) first started emerging. Prior to season two, about two years ago, the meta was pretty much non-existent. Players would pick whatever type of champion they wanted, regardless of what lane they were going or who else was on their team. Then toward the end of the first season of the game, the "meta" emerged in the professional [http://leaguepedia.com/wiki/Riot_Season_1_Championship League of Legends Season One Championship], where many of the top competing teams were following the current meta. The championship was one of the first events where players of all skill levels were able to see how the best play. So after seeing them play, it was only natural for them to want to mimic their play style. However, the main argument was that the players in the championship had fully mastered many of the basic mechanics of the game, and that is the only reason why the meta works for them. Many argued that one must first become highly-ranked to even see a difference in using the meta team composition. A summoner named Xasyri posted on the League of Legends Forum, “I can understand in higher elo games where players are more coordinated that the current meta is fairly set in stone but why is it at low elo that players insist on using the current meta when it is not ideal? You can say how ideal it is all you want but lets face it, if you aren't a platinum level player you will not last hit amazingly. You don't have players who are amazing supports who can prevent you from dying to double bruiser. Players generally don't even know how to play against double bruiser anymore.” League of Legends Community.http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2688024. (the term “elo” is a word used to describe a players rank). As for the other side of the argument, Rarity Belle, a senior member of the League of Legends Forum, brought up good points in defending the meta. Taking multiple factors about champions into consideration, he wrote things like: “In League, primary importance is placed on the AD Carry.”, “Mages have been put mid because they tend to lack escapes.”, and “The AD Carry gets a support champion to help them- they need constant protection, and as minimal a loss of gold as possible.” League of Legends Community.http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2369067. Instead of analyzing the skill level of players, Rarity Belle took an approach looked at special traits of champions that exist in the game. Player skill will always fluctuate among different divisions, but the traits of champions will always remain the same. It is most likely based on this fact why the old meta still exists to this day. References